Performing Arts: Plethora of Shakespeare Makes SoCal a ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream

GELFAND’S WORLD-Southern California has developed a rich tradition of summer theater. It includes everything from the Laguna Beach Pageant of the Masters to the Hollywood Bowl. But what distinguishes the summer from all other seasons is the plethora (and what other word could describe it?) of summer Shakespeare. 

How about Henry V played at a winery in Temecula? Or the tragedy of King Lear alternating with three Shakespearian comedies at the Will Gear Theatricum Botanicum up in Topanga Canyon? 

Then there is always our San Pedro hometown group Shakespeare By The Sea, doing Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream. 

I once pored over the summer drama listings in a local weekly and found that something in excess of one-fourth of all the productions were, in fact, Shakespeare. I attributed it to the fact that Shakespeare is worth doing. One producer explained that there is another reason -- the drama company doesn't have to pay royalties to the author and his publisher. That seemed a bit cynical, so I hope that it is sheer love of the text that gets all these directors and actors on stage. In any case, it's our gain. 

How do you even begin to find the summer Shakespeare of your liking? It took me a little online searching, but I found the website Shakespeare in LA.  It is a nearly comprehensive listing of the Shakespeare going on from Berkeley down to San Diego, with a serious serving of LA area productions. You can find out what's going on at the Globe in San Diego (Othello and Two Gentlemen of Verona) or at the Long Beach Shakespeare Company (all three parts of Henry VI as public read-alongs, as well as Richard III). 

One useful thing about this site is that it gives you the listings in two forms. One is theatre by theatre, but if you look over on the right side of the page, you will find the plays themselves listed. This is a great addition if you happen to be a fan of a particular play, because then you can locate the 3 different productions of Much Ado About Nothing or the 4 (not kidding) of Twelfth Night. Two other plays tie for tops, with 4 productions apiece. 

On the other hand, if you crave Antony and Cleopatra, you only have one production put on by Cal Lutheran's own company. 

There are of course lots of other dramatic works in Los Angeles. You can find reviews and references in local newspapers such as The Daily Breeze, or in the L.A. Weekly. 

One theater that is building a strong reputation in San Pedro is the TE Rep group. The TE stands for Theatrum Elysium, and the group has previously produced a wondrous Hamlet and an innovative musical treatment of Shaw's Pygmalion. It's summer performance is The Lady of Shalott, [http://www.sanpedrorep.org/] a story growing out of the Arthurian legends. We'll be following this production through its development and into performance. 

Last weekend, the Long Beach Opera brought back its performance of David Lang's one act piece, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field. It's loosely based on a 752 word short story by Ambrose Bierce, one of his ghost story genre. The plot, such as it is, has one dramatic element: A plantation owner in the pre-Civil War south begins to walk across a field. One moment he is there, the next instant he has disappeared entirely. 

The composer riffs on these elements to comment on the institution of slavery as seen by the slaves and, in contrast, with how it is seen by the owners of slaves. The libretto refers, perhaps amusedly, to John C. Calhoun, to the mysteries of Selma Alabama, and to the daughter's desire to learn about good and evil. Most of the audience didn't seem to catch this reference to Genesis, as in Eve's tasting of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Lang and his librettist Mac Wellman have taken the short-short story and turned it into something of an inkblot for the audience. The projective nature of the viewing was revealed when the cast and audience held a 10 minute post-performance discussion on what the story was about. No two answers or even questions showed any resemblance. For some reason, none of the audience members noticed the most obvious allegory, that of the trauma children endure when they first learn about death. 

It's actually fairly obvious in the opera -- the man has disappeared from life, and none of the characters questioned or giving testimony really quite understands what has happened to him. On the other hand, some of the actors and audience members inferred an incestuous relationship between the planter and his daughter, subtly conveyed. 

By the way, Bierce is probably best remembered in the ghost story genre for his Civil War story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.  The basic idea has been stolen many times since, but this is still the best in the genre. 

For the opera fans among us, the Monitor has a quiz on opera you can take. Some of the questions are a little arcane, but it's fun.

 

(Bob Gelfand writes on culture and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected]) 

-cw

 

 

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 54

Pub: Jul 4, 2014